Pessimism
by CrystalOfEllinon
Summary: Siobhan has tried very hard to piss off Snake Eyes over the years, but when she succeeds in the very worst time and place she realizes that, maybe, angry ninja aren't as much fun to stare down as she thought.


"There's no point in keeping her alive like this."  
Siobhan knew as soon as the words left her lips that she'd angered her sister's man. Snake Eyes' spine went stiff, his shoulders bunched, and his fingers curled into fists. Very slowly, he turned to face her.

She took an involuntary step back as his eyes, the only part of that destroyed face that she could see, fixed on her own. Belatedly, she remembered that he'd only been in the accident that had taken his face and voice because her sister had been trapped and helpless. Much like now.

He didn't say anything; his hands remained as unnervingly still as the rest of him. But those eyes…the cold fury there was unmistakable.

But she wasn't about to be cowed by a glare form an army grunt. She glared right back, frowning.

"There isn't." She snapped. "Stop giving me that look." She brushed her husband's warning hand off of her shoulder. "The doctors said that her chances for recovery aren't impressive. We'd all be better off if we just let her go and got on with our lives."

Siobhan had seen Snake Eyes upset before…more than once at her doing. Siobhan hadn't agreed with her sister's choice to join the Army, and she didn't like the fact that in a world full of nice, normal men with nice, white-collar, nine-to-five jobs Shana had taken up with a _ninja_, for Chrissakes. The man was a trained killer; Siobhan didn't trust him any farther than she could throw him.

The fact that Shana and Snake Eyes seemed completely happy together-happier than herself and her own husband, which only added insult to injury-only made her hate the whole situation more. She'd tacked all of her blame and dislike squarely on the ninja, and the fact that generally her open disapproval didn't warrant so much as a second thought from him only bothered her more. Siobhan didn't like it when people didn't take her seriously. The fact that generally he ignored her only made her dislike him more; she'd rather people fight with her than simply blink slowly and turn away when she needled them.

But sometimes she did get a rise out of him, and she greatly relished those moments…but she suddenly realized that despite all the times they'd argued, despite all the times she'd insulted him, his clan, his training, his looks…she'd never really seen Snake Eyes angry. And right now, she _was._

The glare he was giving her was flat, level, and so utterly, utterly cold that she actually felt her knees tremble. His hands finally moved, sharp, fluid, and almost too quick for her to follow.

*However much more convenient it might be for you, you are _not_ removing her life support.*

Her temper flared. She ignored the open warning in Snake Eyes' posture, the low, urgent hiss of her husband's voice in her ears. "You don't get a say; you've no legal control of the situation, you ugly wretch. She's our problem, not yours."

He was across the room so fast that she didn't even see him move, and then he was crowding her and her husband back towards the door. Siobhan was suddenly very aware of the fact that he _was _a soldier, black-ops, commando-trained, a ninja master, and very, very capable of breaking her like a toothpick. And judging from the look in his eyes, he was considering it.

*You're the only one who thinks that, and I don't give a damn about what you and your lawyers say anyways.* He signed sharply. *If anyone tries to hurt her, they will only do it over my dead body. And I mean that _literally.*_

"Back off." But her voice was shaking. "I'll call security."

His eyes narrowed. *Go ahead.*

She realized that he meant it; however much she hated him, she'd seen the scars on his body. She wasn't stupid; she knew that you only looked like that after a _lot_ of fighting, and the fact that he was still alive spoke volumes on the current health of whoever had given him those scars. She'd seen him drilling out back when he and Shana came to visit. She remembered the very first time Shana had brought him home over Christmas.

Their brothers, instinctively trying to establish themselves at the top of the pecking order over their sister's new man, had challenged him to a friendly sparring match…all of them against him, at once. He'd reluctantly accepted at the eager urging of the entire extended family. The resulting match had lasted approximately forty seconds, and had firmly demonstrated to everyone present that Snake Eyes' much-storied training as a master ninja was not a farce. His sheer speed and the disturbing ease with which he'd trounced her young, fit, trained-since-childhood brothers had deeply unsettled Siobhan.

A few complacent and well-fed hospital security personnel wouldn't faze the man. A damned _SWAT _team wouldn't faze the man. And right now it was not the calm, mannered, and even-tempered man that Siobhan usually saw when Shana brought him home for a visit. This was the highly trained, frighteningly skilled commando and assassin. Siobhan was willing to bet that that very glare had been the last sight of more than a few people.

The fact that she knew he'd probably killed more people than she even knew was one reason that she hated him and his relationship with her sister so keenly. Usually, it just made her angry that the rest of her family _trusted_ him so much. But right now, with the look in his eyes hinting that he'd like to add her to the notches on his knife handle more than a little, it was simply frightening.

She took a deep breath, plucking up her courage. He _was_ Army, after all, and Army men all had the same weakness. "Watch it. I'll call in you CO." She hissed. "He'll bring you to heel like the good little attack dog you are."

*Call in my entire chain of command.* Snake Eyes didn't even blink at her threat. *I don't care who orders me to leave her; I won't do it. If you brought in the President himself and he moved to unplug her, I'd break his arms and kick him out the window.*

She felt the little tremor start in her knees again; that had been her last resort and her best chance at cowing him and she knew it. She believed him, too. There was a glitter in those hard blue eyes that didn't let her _not._ Actually, that steady, icy glare was making her feel rather like a small and helpless rodent locked in the sights of a particularly vindictive tomcat.

He wasn't done, though. *Unlike _you_, I care _very_ much about Shana.* Snake advanced on them another few steps, backing them towards the door bit by bit. *And I want to make something very clear; if you somehow manage to convince the doctors to take her off of life support-which you _won't_-, whoever they send _will_ have to kill me first to do it. And,* another step forwards. *There are very, _very_ few people capable of killing me. Many people have tried very hard over the years.* His eyes narrowed a bit more. *So go ahead. Try. Or get out of my sight, _now,_ before I _throw_ you out, and don't come back here again, because I will _ not _ be gentle when I toss you out the door.*

Siobhan didn't resist when her husband grabbed her urgently by the arm and dragged her out into the hallway. Snake Eyes slammed the door as soon as they were through, almost catching her in the face with it. She doubted that was by accident. She glared at the door, but didn't make a move towards it.

"I hate him so much." She growled. It was easier to feel anger, now that that cold glare wasn't turning her knees into terrified jelly. At least the rest of her family had already left; she wouldn't have enjoyed them seeing her quaking in her shoes as the man she regularly needled and insulted all but picked her up by the scruff of the neck and tossed her out of the room.

"He loves her." Her husband looked uncomfortable. "He's risked his life and career for her before; he's not going to give up so long as the doctors think there's a shred of hope. Maybe not even then. _Probably_ not even then. And he's right, sweetie…the rest of your family is with him on this."

She glared at him. "Shut up."

He did. Siobhan stalked off towards the main doors and the parking lot, still seething. There was a very small part of her that was venturing the opinion that, maybe, Snake Eyes was right…any chance was reason enough to keep hoping for her sister to wake up and recover. But Siobhan was a pessimist, and the tiny voice was drowned out by the much louder voice protesting the futility of the doctor's efforts.

A good deal of her bad mood was coming not from her hate of the ninja that her sister loved-well, not _just _from her hatred for Snake-but from the fact that, deep down, she suspected that Snake Eyes, a ninja, a trained killer, a damned _assassin_, cared a great deal more about her sister than Siobhan herself ever had.

She scowled to herself, cursing that little voice in the back of her head into silence.

* * *

I don't know why, but I've had this in my head and had to write it. Scarlett, of course, recovered fully from the coma she was briefly in after being shot by the Baroness…greatly to poor Snake Eyes' relief and joy. Siobhan is a bitch. I always have an urge to slap her whenever I read that comic.


End file.
